Carson City has withdrawn its
opposition to a constitutional challenge to Nevada's ban on gay
marriage.
According to the Daily
Herald, the city's district attorney, Neil Rombardo, had
filed a brief on behalf of Carson City Clerk-Recorder Alan Glover in
a 9th Circuit Court appeal filed by eight plaintiff
couples to a 2012 ruling upholding Nevada's ban on same-sex marriage.
The brief urged the appeals court to uphold the lower court's
ruling.
Rombardo said that a 9th
Circuit ruling which found it unconstitutional to exclude jurors
based on sexual orientation spurred his office to act.
“That SmithKline case was [a] game
changer and it changed the analysis in our circuit,” Rombardo told
the paper.
He said that the city's concerns
revolved around other challenges which could arise should the ban
fall.
“I did not oppose equal rights
marriage,” Rombardo said. “I do oppose polygamy. I do not think
they are one and the same. … Any concern I had regarding the
previous analysis was gone.”
Lead plaintiffs in the case are two
women in their 70s who have raised 3 children and have 4
grandchildren. Beverly Sevcik and Mary Baranovich have been together
more than four decades.
(Related: 11
attorneys general: Gay marriage will lead to “tragic
deconstruction” of marriage.)